


Carelessness

by inbetweenfractals



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, nothing is easy, revelation scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 21:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10049087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inbetweenfractals/pseuds/inbetweenfractals
Summary: He had been careless, of course.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Used this to help me get back into writing cause it's been hard lately, though I'm still not really back yet. Anyway, hope you enjoy

He had been careless, of course.

Not surprising, since he was only fifteen and counted himself lucky if he managed five whole hours of sleep a night. He was stressed and paranoid, but not paranoid enough apparently. If he had been more paranoid, or just a bit more cautious, or, or - or  _ something,  _ then maybe he would have checked just a bit more carefully that he was alone before he transformed back. 

But he hadn't, and now he was faced with his parents, who held their ectoguns loosely in slack hands.

"Danny?" his mom - no, Maddie - whispered.

Fear like ice clenched in his stomach. He stumbled, just a little, as if he had just taken one of Dash's more vicious punches. His breathing sped up, shallow in a chest that suddenly felt locked up tight.

Maddie stepped forward.

"St-stay back," he said, holding up a hand. A hand that had begun to glow, just so very faintly. In this darkness, however, it was plenty bright. She froze, taking the threat for what it was.

"Dan, Danno," his dad - Jack, he reminded himself - said, chuckling weakly. "What's going on?"

He too began to walk forward.

"Stay back!" Danny hissed. From the faint buzz he could feel in his eyeballs, his eyes were flashing green right now. Obviously inhuman. Jack stopped as well. 

Danny's hand trembled.

"Danny, please, whatever this is...we can fix it," Maddie said. Her tone of voice was nice and almost comforting, but Danny noticed that she hadn't put down her weapons. Neither had Jack.

"You can't," he said. When the two of them began to step forward again, he jutted his hand at them and snarled, "I said, stay back!"

They stopped again. His legs felt weak. Oh god, would they please just stop staring? He wanted to disappear. A part of him wanted to die, for real this time. Anything to get him away from here, from the way his parents were looking at him. 

“You just have to tell us what’s going on,” Maddie said. Her voice was strained, a little shaky, but she continued to look at him intently. Jack, too. If only they would stop looking at him like that…

"I'm a ghost!" he roared. With his eyes shining that eerie electric green, he knew they'd believe him. 

But Jack shook his head, wouldn't stop shaking it. "You're our son."

“No. No, I’m not!”

“You’re our son,” Jack said again. One hand was open, helpless. The other still held his ectogun.

“No, I’m  _ not _ ,” Danny snarled, angry. Angry at himself, for being stupid and useless and freakish and fucked up. At them, for being here, for knowing and still denying.

“Yes, you  _ are _ ,” Maddie said. Danny could see her fingers tighten on her ectogun's grip. “What else could you be?”

"He died! I - I died, okay?" Danny could hear his voice wavering, could feel tears threatening. He tried, couldn't take a deep breath. "I'm a ghost. Congrats, you know, and now - and now what? I've been trying and trying and, and, and now you, you're gonna rip me apart molecule by molecule, d-dissect me, destroy -  _ Stay back! _ " he shouted again, voice cracking, as his parents stepped forward yet again.

But this time, neither one stopped. He raised his hand higher, letting it glow more brightly. "Stay back," he said again, stumbling backward. "Stop, stop looking at me like that, go away, go away, go away  _ please _ ..."

His foot caught on something, he couldn't see what, and he fell hard. He curled up into a tight ball, not looking up at his parents, not wanting to see how they were looking at him now.

He hid his face and began to cry. 

A voice that sounded very much like Spectra whispered  _ pathetic, useless, freakish little boy _ … in his ear. He couldn't quite bring himself to care. Everything was over now and it was all his fault. If only he had been more careful.

Somewhere above him, he heard, "Oh, honey." As warm hands touched him, he shrank in on himself. "We'll fix this, you'll see," his mother said.

He just shook his head again and again. She began to pull him into a hug.

More frantically, Danny tried to explain, "No, you, you - I can't..."

But he couldn’t figure out how to express himself, how to tell them that this wasn't something that could be fixed, wasn't something he wanted fixed, was part of his identity now, intrinsically part of him now.

As he pulled back, he hit something. Something cool, and hard. Oh. His mom’s ectogun. Still within her easy reach, even as she tried to hug him.

A cold weight settled into his stomach like he had swallowed a block of ice. His parents...they’d never be able to accept him again. They’d always view him as an enemy, a threat - at the very least, something alien. Not their son.

Nothing could ever be like it was again.

He would never be safe in that house again.

“I can’t stay,” Danny whispered, the realization painful.

He shuddered, and Maddie’s arms closed on empty air.


End file.
